It's just that although the first prototype prototype was made according to my design drawings a few years ago, due to the first time it was made, and the quality of many accessories failed to meet the requirements, the power was relatively low, and it is currently being improved according to my requirements.

Now that the steam engine is available, increasing steel production is naturally preparing for the future development of transportation. With the advent of railways, the volume of land transportation will be greatly increased, and the transportation time will be shortened, and the economy will also be greatly improved.

When the time comes, people can easily take the train to thousands of miles to enjoy the scenery, do business, and travel. Yes, my biggest dream is to be able to go to Siberia to soak in the hot springs, and then go to the South China Sea to eat popsicles, so that life is meaningful.

Of course, before that, it is still necessary to increase steel production. The quality of our steel can now be proudly said to far surpass that of other Central Plains princes, such as Shanxi, which purchased a large number of various steel products from our Chinese Empire.

Even the countries of the Western Regions and the many vassal states of our Huaxia Empire have come to make it possible to trade steel with us, of course, by purchasing the steel products of our Huaxia Empire, and the most hopeful of them is weapons.

Whether it is the steel knife of my Huaxia Empire, or the armor, these are what they crave. Of course, the price of our Huaxia Empire's heavy plate armor is really prohibitively expensive. But that doesn't stop them from craving it.

For example, Gao Chang purchased 500 pieces of heavy plate armor from us, and the price of each heavy plate armor is 1,000 pieces, and 500 pieces alone cost 500,000 pieces, and what about the cost? From iron ore to fine armor, the total cost will not exceed fifty times.

The profit in this was simply outrageous, and Gao Changguo took 100,000 catties of copper and 1,000 catties of gold and other things in exchange. In addition to Gaochang, other countries also purchased some of this armor to a greater or lesser extent.

According to their thoughts, such armor was suitable for the lords of the country, or for those generals to wear, at least in terms of protection, far stronger than any armor of this era.

As for the plate chain composite armor they want to buy, Saorui, this thing is not for sale. Don't look at the defense of the plate chain composite armor is slightly inferior to the heavy plate armor, but the problem is that the weight of this armor is much lighter, and it is more flexible in movement and movement.

The only regrettable thing is that the process of chain mail is more complicated, but now that the wire drawing technology has been successful, the most troublesome process is only how to weave chain mail.

This kind of armor that is light enough and strong enough to defend is the current standard armor of the field army of the Chinese Empire's revival army, and the heavy plate armor is mainly allocated to the two special forces of heavy cavalry and Mo swordsman.

The defense of heavy plate armor can be called invincible, but its weight and agility are not something that ordinary soldiers can use for a long time. Therefore, this kind of heavy plate armor is used for export.

No matter how good the defense is, what can it be? Do these barbarians have Hancheng horses? Besides, it doesn't matter if all these foreign countries are equipped with this kind of armor, our Huaxia Empire can form an all-firearms force in the shortest possible time.

Whether it's artillery, muskets, grenades, or mines, these powerful and penetrating gunpowder weapons will become a nightmare for cold weapon users.

The sale of weapons and equipment in large quantities, the added value of which is absolutely no less than that of the trade in luxury goods. At the beginning, it was only to sell old weapons to the Central Plains Zhuxiong, but now, more is sold to neighboring countries, and this year, the arms trade alone has reaped nearly three million profits.

In the future, it is estimated that this year, the income from the arms trade alone should be more than 5 million, and if the Chinese Empire's arms exports become famous, it is believed that the annual profits from the arms trade in the future will not be less than this number.

You must know that there are too many vassal states around the Huaxia Empire, and although each country does not contribute much, it will inevitably form a very terrible number if it accumulates a lot.

I have sent merchants with samples of the armor and weapons of the Chinese Empire to the land of the Persian Diet. I believe that after those people see the sharpness of this weapon and the protective properties of the armor, they will definitely come to procure.

At that time, whether it was land trade or sea trade, it could travel as far as Central Asia or the border between Asia and Africa.

Well, there are already expedition ships that have already passed through the Strait of Malacca in early February and are heading west, but they have to stop and go because of the fear of typhoons in summer and autumn and the need to draw nautical charts. It is expected that the return will not be possible until the end of this year.

Their target was the western part of the Tianzhu Peninsula, the Red Sea, known as the Red Sea in the Persian population, on the border between what would become the Arabian Peninsula and Africa. Of course, I let them go, the northern tip of the Red Sea, just over 170 kilometers from the Mediterranean.

This piece of land will become an enclave of the Chinese Empire in the future, and before that, it will naturally come to explore the way in the name of seafaring trade.

Historically, this was the location of the Suez Canal, which made it possible to transport water between Europe and Asia in both directions without bypassing the Cape of Storm (Cape of Good Hope) at the southern tip of Africa.

A voyage from the port of London in England or the port of Marseille in France to the port of Mumbai in India can shorten the total voyage by 43 per cent and 56 per cent respectively via the Suez Canal than around the Cape of Good Hope, and the distance between the port of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and the port of Constanta in the Black Sea is 11,771 miles, while the distance via the Suez Canal is only 1,698 miles, saving 86 miles.

Before the opening of the Suez Canal, it was sometimes possible to transport goods between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea by land by unloading them from ships. But it was still too laborious, so it took ten years to start construction in 1859 and be used until 1870, and the number of Arabs who fell on the road alone reached 120,000.

Nowadays, it is only to investigate, mainly to carry out trade with Arabia and Great Food, after all, the volume of sea transport is much higher than that of land transport, at least before the opening of rail transport.

I was dreaming about the future as I listened to the smelter's director take us on a tour of the construction site. “…… We now have two open-hearth furnaces with a capacity of 50 tons per day, which are expected to be completed by the end of this year. ”

"That means that by the beginning of next year, with the addition of the old smelting furnaces, our smelter will have a daily production capacity of more than 250 tons. The annual output can reach 91,250 tons of steel. ”

"In addition to the steel used to make various weapons and armor, about two-thirds of our current steel production is used to produce civilian means of production, such as steel for construction, as well as for vehicles, ships, and machinery......"

"Can this open-hearth be enlarged?" I nodded in satisfaction and asked the person in charge.

"Back to Your Majesty, this is naturally possible, the earliest open-hearth we built produced only 1,000 catties per day, and then after many tests and improvements, it has such a scale. Even the design of an open-hearth furnace with a daily output of 100 tons has begun to be built, and construction can start at the latest the year after next. The person in charge has the face of the Great Leap Forward to catch up with the United States, but the words are very uplifting.

"Well, that's good, but don't be too aggressive, let's build a 70-ton open-hearth first, and if there is no problem, build a 100-ton open-hearth." I thought about it for a moment and then said. "The quality of the iron ore in Jiaozhi is better, and after the second phase of the project here is completed, you must send enough manpower and technicians to Jiaozhi to help the Jiaozhi Iron and Steel Plant build this kind of giant furnace."

"Your Majesty, now, the steel production of my Huaxia Empire is almost enough to meet the demand, why does Your Majesty want to build so many smelting facilities?" Fang Xuanling frowned, his face puzzled.

"There is a reason to build so much, don't look at the transportation in my Chinese Empire now, but the problem is that the carriage is limited after all, and it will consume a lot of people and material resources, so that the transportation of my Chinese Empire can ......be maintained."

It is true, horse-drawn carriages need horses, they need coachmen, and the people and goods carried by each carriage are really not worth mentioning compared to the trains. A train can carry at least tens of tons of cargo or hundreds of people. It is equivalent to more than a dozen six-wheeled or eight-wheeled carriages.

Moreover, only a few operators are needed, and all that is consumed is coal and water. The other is speed, the speed and endurance of the train, which far surpasses that of the horse. Wherever the railway can go, it can go without stopping.

Traveling thousands of miles a day is not a dream, traveling two thousand miles a day is easy. Ben Gongzi said a lot, and he heard this guy like a cloud. There were even a few expressions on the faces of you just blow it, which finally angered my son. I decided to take them to see the steam locomotive and let them see the real thing, so that they could illustrate it more vividly.

After a long circle in the smelter, he left the factory, got into a carriage, and rushed towards the Institute of Mechanical Engineering. It took almost an hour and a half to arrive in this remote place.

Between the vast expanses of dense forest, a neat gray-white concrete road leads straight to it. From time to time, soldiers stand in the middle of the road to stop vehicles and check their documents. In the midst of the amazement of these ministers, they finally rushed to this hidden machine building research institute.

Many of the technicians here were born in the past to research and manufacture carriages, but now, they have entered this high-tech research institute and continue to exert their light and heat here.

Entered the Machinery Manufacturing Research Institute, and soon, under the leadership of the person in charge of the institute, came to a huge workshop, just outside, you can already hear a loud rumbling sound, so that everyone can't help but look sideways.